The dominant domestic handler is on the cusp of being crowned champion trainer on both sides of the Irish Sea
English Grand National winner I Am Maximus was the 19th success in Britain for Willie Mullins this season. Photograph: Morgan Treacy/Inphohas long been jump-racing’s dominant figure is like having the bleedin’ obvious as a specialist subject. But having long since won every race worth winning, the prospect of underscoring that dominance with a first trainer’s championship in Britain might be the juiciest of all cherries on top.
The Irish man is now odds-on to pull off the feat and having got into such an enviable position he is going all out to underline just how prepotent his status is in the National Hunt gamevictories included large pay-offs in the Gold Cup and Champion Hurdle too. Mullins landed just one of the sport’s most prestigious prizes when he got close to the British title in 2016 only to lose out ultimately to Nicholls on the final day.
Such umbrage will be perfectly understood by those of a certain vintage in Irish racing. Home failure in the top races here was an uncomfortable reality for long enough to prevent too much smugness now. A decade earlier, Francois Boutin got the honour, through Malacate winning the Derby and the first Champion Stakes. At the height of Vincent O’Brien’s and Paddy Prendergast’s pomp, English man Fulke Johnson Houghton was still champion trainer here twice in the 1960s. No less than Etienne Pollet, who trained Sea Bird, topped the 1962 list through Tambourine in the first Irish Sweeps Derby.
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